UK brings in death penalty for Cookie Monster

The UK’s new cookie law has confused a large number of people who believe that it only applies to muppets and has nothing to do with their web site.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said that thousands of UK websites are expected to be in breach of the law which is supposed to force people to choose which cookies they want.

However, with so many websites, including those in government, in breach of the law we found that many users think that it is all about Sesame Street, which they have not watched since the 1980s.

In that a cookie monster was a large blue creature which ate a large number of biscuits without actually swallowing.

“It is about time that the UK locked up the Cookie Monster,” said one Daily Mail reader who we didn’t approach at random. “He is a menace to society and should be put on a boat back to where he came from. I don’t want to be racist but these are British biscuits we are talking about.”

The BBC also struck the same problem when it tried to find someone who was informed about the new law and was taking it seriously. In the end it had to ask the ICO which did not smile at all.

It was told that cookies were not biscuits after all but “are widely used to customise what repeat visitors see on a site and by advertisers to track users online.”

The ICO said it would offer help to non-compliant sites rather than take legal action against them. It also does not seem to be starting a monster hunt against any cookie monsters any time soon.

It is not clear how all this will work. UK firms have had a year to prepare for the change and the ICO has spent much of that time on the blower reminding businesses about their obligations.